Happy Sunday Everyone!

thanks life.

That's what I've been coaching myself to think, "get a life!" DO NOT DROWSE! It's my first day at work since I have been hospitalized for bleeding myself to almost dry that I had to be a vampire by a needle to survive. I'm wobbly that's why the husband is like a "stage dad" watching my every move and asking if I'm okay every 10 mins...oh he cares a lot right now, I've given him such a scare. I wont DIE, not yet at least I have to make it to my birthday this Friday and my wish is to live a longer happy life. ^^ Well these things happen, at least our marriage is tested for what we vowed for "in sickness and in health" ... we're just not ready for the next phrase the "till death do us part" part, that's why we said "until we both shall live" in our marriage vows and not the latter because it sounded better... I mean, the moment seems perfect to say that I will stay married to him even in death...nice eh?! ^^
Well now, I just wish for a mind reader that directly feeds into my blog as I have been wanting to write but the trouble is time and my ability to write in the midst of daze and tubes...but I'm well now, I'm at work proof that I have survived stubborness and not taking care of myself... hit the gym! hit the gym! I swear I said that many times in my hospital bed that I will go back to lifting those weights and sweating it all out! whew. stubborn. sassy. me. next year promise, 2010!
Anyway, lets head off to my hometown where we'll be in a few days to spend the holidays and like my oldest friend LIFE isn't giving me any normalcy... I just want a holiday and there goes Mt. Mayon spewing ashes and lava, tremors and all that volcanic erruption thing, I could see Mt. Mayon from our backyard!!! Well...it's hard not to see Mt. Mayon anywhere in my city...it's as majestic as you think it is...how you would draw a volcano when you are told to do so is how it looks...triangle in 2D, perfect cone in 3D, perfect circle on top view!!! Lovely and WILD! She's our muse, she's beautiful but dangerrrrrous. We never blame her for any destruction, oftentimes people are lured to stay close in awe of her beauty. What can you do about the forces of nature? It doesn't choose a time, if it has to fill our land with more land, what can you do??? Boulders would shoot up in the air like it has no weight but the sizes of which ranges from a refrigerator to as big as a house!!! Such a spectacle from afar. I have my fondest memories of Mt. Mayon's erruption in my head and it includes barbercue at the park with binoculars! If you happen to have lived in Legazpi City where Mayon is you will understand its BEAUTY and SHIFTING TEMPER like a true woman it is hardly predictable but unassumingly charming. So yes, even if the news says people are evacuated and will probably stay at the evacuation centers 'till Christmas, Christmas will still happen! Nothing can stop it! For as long as everyone keeps a distance, Mayon erruptions will stay as a spectacle rather than a calamity, it's brialliant to watch how it glows bright red in the dark, really I tell you it's eerily wonderful...there's some hint of delight in danger... I'm out of my mind, don't listen to me, I'm under medication so bear with me will ya? :) OUT.

sick and fine.

...and I thought I'd make a really cool come back and be starting my post with something really awesome after I've been gone and excused myself for a while for I had gotten myself stuck with loads of work to do...Anyway, this isn't a COOL come back at all, I'm at home and had just woken up, rested but if I may tell you why I'm at home instead of laboring myself out into the world... I got sick. Terrible, terrible of me to let it all happen, WOMEN of the world LISTEN, drink your IRON supplement, never let it pass especially when you got your "time of the month" -- I was too proud to think I'm fine and could do lots of overtime work and sleeping late! Yeah my head thinks so but my body just gave in one day. I couldn't get up, I couldn't breathe and couldn't eat, that's how bad it was for me last Wednesday. I woke up and felt queasy, thought I'd just give it a day's rest as my husband went on to prepare for work, if I had not tried to get up from bed to make breakfast I wouldn't realize I'm already too weak to stand, it feels awful that my mind was so stubborn it had to make me try getting up thrice leaving me gasping for air and was very thirsty. The mind is powerful, it says whatever you want to hear but your body can never lie especially when you're bound to be in danger.

I knocked at the bathroom door where my husband was with very slight energy, I was too weak to knock an alarming knock I was afraid he won't hear it from the shower trickling so loudly so I tried exerting an effort to shout out loud "we need to go to the hospital!"

My husband found me seating at the edge of the bed leaning against the wall, I was conscious enough not to fall anywhere else but the bed or else I might hit my head. I really thought I'd die, there's no excuse for taking all the signs and symptoms for granted, a simple case of a "months" period would've killed me!

We reached the hospital at 7:30 am, they ran sorts of test on me and told me that I'm suffering from severe Anemia and needs a blood transfusion, later that night I had a bag of blood hanging above me, I instantly felt warm and better, my husband took care of everything and he was very thankful that blood transfusion is possible, thanks to whoever invented it! Husband was a donor in September he never thought that I'd receive be needing a bag of blood one day...it's the best gift... My birthday is next Friday I'm glad to be alive!

Lesson, do not let yourself get caught in something you think you know everything about..."Life is full of surprises" and not all are FUN.

at eleven

so the things that clamour my head bugging me like a child for more sweets are the pictures I promised you about the lights and decors I awed at every night...apparently I still manage to go over my regular hours at work that the huge, decorated tree I was so infatuated with would turn its lights off at around 11 p.m. leaving me disappointed and still hoping for it to come alive even after I've known it's really, really OFF by eleven, you know they might just turn it up just this time because I have my camera with me... but no such miracle ever ocurred in two succeeding nights that I stood at its base, mesmerized at how plenty the handmade stars were on that tree. Well maybe by December they will extend its "lit" hours...and oh what's that? ... my head talking to itself... another HUGE decorated tree across the road, whoa! equally tall and marvelous! Equally disappointing me at eleven! I should really call the Mayor about these things affecting my being patriotic and all that promotion I'm giving my BIG city to the world! tsk. tsk. it's so wrong to disappoint a tax paying citizen! Anyway, the hubby goes by saying "you can take photos of the ribbon wrapped tree-trunks along the road." It's lit overnight and not a tree is spared...hmmn.. yeah...those sparkly christmas balls too, remember those? you can't pluck them out so easily, you have to uproot the whole tree to get one! Plus, the police keeps a roving night patrol, so no luck on that either.

I have to maximize my time out everynight, that's the only time I breathe in natural air... as you know my life is tied to a project in India that just wont give me a bit of space to see the sun shine and do my rounds at the mall, I really need new shoes now. It's AC air day in and day out...*sigh* You know how thick my make-up is in the morning? ^^ It's enough to last the whole day so I don't need to re-touch! That's how tough the "battle field is" you have to wear long lasting make-up. Our Design Manager had just gotten a Doctor's certificate advising him to take a leave of absence for 2-3 weeks...he's got heart palpitations, yup! the project is winning us over...I mean winning over us! One by one our white flags are up in surrender, YOU WIN. My knees are bruised in prayer...please take your airport out of our hands because you don't like us anyway. I'm so looking forward to the day when we can all look back and laugh at this... haha. when.when.when. I try looking back ever so often, I don't want to miss the moment when the laughing starts! But for the instances that I turned around to see... we weren't laughing still.
Anyway, pay tribute to my efforts and the nights I spent missing the happily lit Christmas tree. I advise you to visit INDIA, once that beautiful new airport is built, I want you to run your palms to every glass window and metal claddings you see and be reminded of the person who whines about it on your shoulders almost everyday and that you gave comfort.

seventeen

yes.yes. work, love it. hate it. love it. I do wish I never dropped my rockstar dream and just do fun gigs for a living! Like Paramore...I don't know when exactly I started liking them but it's definitely not because of Twilight when their song Decode became O.S.T. I just happen to like them on my own, in my time...haha. I'm nearing 30 and I'm giggling at the posibilities of Hayley, the lead singer and Josh on guitars being together and inlove! It's like I'm 17 all over again, madly inlove with my overly protective drummer boyfriend! *sigh* crazy, free teen spirit days when you don't have bills to worry about...hmmnn??? where did the good times went? I still love my life now, but those days became just memories, when we hardly thought it would ever end! The nights and dawns of rehearsing and playing for the crowd...where oh where did it all go??? >< ...well, 3 of us went into architecture, one into the medical field and 2 are now engineers...how fun...what happened to their mad talent on guitars and drums? Do they still play? Ever again? ...How sad that we all just drifted apart, some came to my wedding but...my former drummer boyfriend, who's so artistic and moody and crazy is rumoured now to be gay. ^0^ Well, not that I protest I mean... he was obsessed with his looks and was very artistic, he drew me pictures everyday... he could be gay and I ... so what?! If he's happy!

Well, aren't we all just wishing time will be discriminating in favor of the best times and go slower than it does?

love.love.love

It's getting nearer and nearer!We used to think we'd have enough time to plan and look at options but now it's more like a rush... what are we going to do on our FIRST year anniversary!!! weeeeeeeeeeeee! Time flies sooo fast that we are turning one year! very happy and exciting! Actually, it's still this December but we've been looking forward to this since the day after we got married! haha... I guess the whole experience of planning and the gathering of people closest to us made us want more of this kind of event to happen. We'd be so glad to get married each year!^^ We could marry in so many ways here in the Philippines, having many tribes and traditions to follow, we could just get adopted in those tribes and be married in their rites, that'd be cool...or seriously speaking, we can have a Baptist ceremony too, Ramil my husband is a Baptist but we got married in Catholic ceremony 'cuz I am one. Anyway, that topic could make a whole new post so, I'd just stick to YES, we can plan a Bapist wedding too,right? He got so excited when I mentioned that we can actually do that!^^ Among traveling, spa resorts and party with friends, that is one of our choices on WHAT TO DO ON YOUR FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY?!

Anyway, you'll find out what we decide upon soon!

Sharing you some photos from our last years before the wedding!...at a theme park of course!













Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

xoxo
Sassy.

halloween newbie

We don't celebrate Halloween ever! I mean never as of yet. I don't call a few isolated celebrations to be a real Halloween season...but we're getting there, don't worry kids we will have Halloween within your lifetime!^^ What we have is "Todos Los Santos" or All Saints Day on Nov. 1 and All Souls Day on Nov. 2, where people spend time going to cemeteries, lighting candles, and bringing flowers for our beloved dead, usually just a quiet time for prayer and family reunion. I don't have anything against these things that I wanted to have a halloween ball or anything loud and rid of the solemn tradition, but what I want is to make these holidays less SPOOKY. It's a holiday for our beloved dead and not for the evil things that lurk in the dark or the paranormal things that give me chills. Maybe a "Halloween Party" could at least make the celebration light and less scary... even if the whole idea of Halloween is to scare, the stillness and smell of burning wax- from the candles scare me more ...and you can add the tales of ghosts and the unseen forces being told on TV documentaries! great. I now feel very uncomfortable, I don't like the dark and scary stuff, BUT maybe... if there'll be a hundred Edward Cullens out there in the dark and I'm Bella, I'd be happy to have Halloween all year round! har.har.har.

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'Good thing, it's beginning...the whole Halloween Trick or Treat-ing is happening, little by little we will have our kids be doing this, instead of being outrightly spooked without the drama... at least they will be observing the old tradition while adopting a new one and wont be treating these holidays as "plain" scary as I do!

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Anyway, here are some photos of my hubby's FIRST Halloween ever! Lucky him, he went to the US just in time for the Halloween last two-oh-oh-seven (2007!) yikes. Oh sshh... no one's too old for Halloween! I'm so jealous!






boo!
Sassy.

Wedding at the Bamboo Church

How fun it was haha...eventually the whole formal event didn't came to be...^^ Everyone was notified to just store away their gowns and be in a "semi" formal wear or whatever they feel right about wearing to a wedding...my husband has stuffed his tie in my clutch bag and I wore a flowy blouse and pearls. We car pooled with friends making the travel less harassing. The traffic was sooo bad at the coastal road, we began watching movies...yay! 'perks of being friends with a Congressman's wife, we rode into her car with one digit plate number and 2 LCD screens and snacks! awesome... We were able to breathe in our clothes as the location is about 2 hours drive from our city that wore on to be an hour more snailing our way through.
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We finally reached the church 20 minutes before 4pm, our first time to see the St. Joseph Parish in Las Pinas (Las Pin-yas) famous for the Bamboo Organ built in the 19th Century. The organ still plays, they used it for the wedding and it sounds fantastic, very much like what Dracula would use in his castle at the mountaintop to sound scary...tentententen! But this sounded awesome clear, you can only imagine what it was like for the people of the 19th century singing with this instrument playing, it would've been the coolest church in the country! The church also has bamboo chandeliers and ceiling, terracotta tile floors and ornate stone walls, though small it is cozy and has a feeling of being in a medieval world but also very Filipino for the use of Bamboo.
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The ceremony was very solemn, they only have about 100-150 guests of family and friends. The church was decorated with Sampaguita..^^ I find it very interesting that they did...even the Bride's bouquet was made of clustered Sampaguita, it's a white Jasmin flower that's very fragrant, it filled the church with it's scent.
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At the reception, the tables were still set "somehow" formal with all those spoons and forks and glasses that we scrabbled together eventually when the food came because the tables have huge centerpieces of roses and fruits, beads and the couple's photos that there weren't much space for the plate with food sooo...yes, eventually the utensils went out of its proper order, so what!

The cake was HUGE too! wow...I gaped at it.period.
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My husband and I won a game for the couples, winning our table an extra bottle of wine! yay! we were awesome at naming body parts with the letters "P" and "T"...

The night went on great, I'm sure the couple are pleased that there are NO major hitch at all besides the guests not being able to find their seats because the seating plan was a "mirror" image of what is actual! haha... nothing bad or worse was noticeable other than that so good job to the couple and the on-site coordinators! ^^ and good job ME and hubby for winning the delicious wine!

i love weddings!

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me and the hubby reminiscing...

the bamboo and Capiz shell chandelier

Sampaguita (jasmin) flowers as aisle decor

my red shoes to go w/the motif.^^

the 19th century Bamboo organ played at the wedding

coming as we are!

ceiling lamps at the reception

the HUGE cake. 'but was too far for my camera...and me.

Donabel

HUGE centerpiece.

yummmm...not just for the kids! yay!

friends not behaving.

me and the hubby

cheers!

Happy Weekend!

xoxo
Sassy

sassy dining.

A weddingggg!^^ We're going to a wedding this coming Saturday, me, the hubby and some friends. A formal dinner one, where you'd sit stiff and eat quarter of a meal served in a large white plate while sipping on red wine and chardonay...gulp. It's been a while since we've attended something like this, my own wedding was not too formal yet "elegant" and "fun", I can say that it was, yes I was there.^^ Well, I'm really summoning all forces to recall what good dining etiquette I've reserved for events like this. I've always been sassy with everything, everywhere...I have no problem laughing at myself if I drop a utensil or something but yes, I do remember to NEVER pick it up incase you drop one, even if you don't intend to use it again just don't duck under the table to pick it up... I kick it away from me though and ask for a new one...I don't understand why they keep handing me pairs of utensils when I drop only one? pfft.

Anyway the bride has been announcing that it's ok if we come as we are and have rowdy-fun! oh I bet she does! I'm not really sure if she wants to see her guests to be too quiet and uncomfortable, you know those tight dresses and heels could really itch!^^

...and what dinner etiquette are you talking about? I come from the 3rd world, I eat with my hands and it's proper!haha You can burp out loud in Japan and it's proper!... somebody invented this fuss, you know that etiquette thing...not fun at all!^^ haha no, seriously...From time to time we need this. We need to experience things like this so our lives wont be a cliche! You know what I mean? So we're not running around in circles where everything is a chosen, familiar path. So yes, we're giving this a try... be stiff, sit still and eat quarter of a meal...

...and have Mc Donalds after.

xoxo
Sassy.

work place.

Hello! it's been a while I know!^^ and I've lost ONE follower in the process of being too busy to sit and write! Well, good bye and good luck on your new destination...I'll FIND you someday, I swear I will!!! :)

Anyway, it's great, I've been great at work that everyday my boss gives me a deadline! He is soooo crazy to do that but still he does, I guess we needed that building project really bad, that much bad that we have to work even on weekends just to finish the drawings for the bidding next Monday...whew.

Well, that could really bore you if you're not into construction and wants to hear about love, life and fashion...oh well, me too! I'm dying to get LIFE! I want to escape my world of numbers and straight lines for a while and go find happy people in happy places!

Because "apparently" my workplace is kinda boring...

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~'happy week everyone!

Love,

Sassy.

simplicity 2

And so the gift giving for the birthday people in my life isn't over yet...hardly. I've had 4 "gifted" people from the last post and was equally generous with them 'cuz they're all dear to me and though my gift were simple, they loved it! I'm glad to have friends who understands the misery of my pocket! ^^

Anyway, last night we were at another birthday party besides the 4 we had last Oct. 14, I have another close friend whose birthday was last night but this time, the hubby came to the rescue for the GIFT expenses. whew, sensing my distress of having too many friends celebrating in October, haha...I might consider that as a criteria before being friends with someone, I must impose NO MORE OCTOBER celebrant friends!^^ I'm fully-booked...^^...kidding! Of course no matter what, I'll be friends with people who are friends with me and are true, that's why I make such effort to be there for them and make them feel special regardless of my capacity to actually pay for anything GRAND because they deserve it!

The gifts this time were better, thanks to the hubby, he's nice isn't he? Buying all these presents for me...I mean NOT me but For me ...arrgh. That sounds complicated, but thanks to him I had no trouble choosing stuff that needs to go in the green bag.

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Happy Birthday REESE and Zamer!

simplicity

oh I know they deserve more than just a canvass shopping bag, chocolates and a birthday card but that's what I got my 4 friends on their birthday today, :( I really wish I had given more but you see, I have no money for a much expensive present. I'm broke and yes, I should be applying for a credit card but my "permit to carry" from my dear husband Ramil has not been approved yet, he treats it like a lethal weapon in my clumsy hands, I cannot blame him ...when he left me with his credit card to use for emergencies when he was out of the country I spent it on so many "emergencies" any woman will understand! I needed that red, red shoes you know to match the lipstick I have and bought so many lovely curtains, books and 3 pcs.of paintings for the house with a discount using his credit card! Oh he laughs at the thought that he'd bought the curtains while being on a business trip as I said "Honey, you bought wonderful curtains" upon his entrance to the living room arriving from the airport, "Really, I bought those curtains?" "why yes darling, aren't you proud of yourself that you've made such fine choices?" while I whirled around to showcase 3 fantastic masterpieces hanging on our previously bare wall, " and you bought paintings too." He was smiling but that smile translates to "you're unbelievable!" So I handed back the credit card very, very slowly and wished I could just run away to where he could not ask me WHY?!

So NO everyone I dont own a credit card at all! And have not applied for a single credit card from any bank or grocery. I have to regain his trust that I won't be a spending machine when he leaves me his card again. I have to prove first that I am capable of budgeting and wont spend on anything that my RAW money cannot buy. But also, I could've afforded to buy a much expensive gift and saved more if only their birthdays doesn't fall in one day! It's already like Christmas but I don't have my bonus yet! But you know, the best thing on having friends is: No matter what the price-tag is on your gift, they'll love it like you've given them the world! One was even in tears when she read the card I wrote her and was not touching the red ribbon I tied the bag with because she said it was very pretty. ^^

Well I guess "No gift is ever too cheap or too expensive if it comes from the heart." still applies.

Take care y'all!

Love,
Sassy.

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and ... here are the presents! tadaaaa! ~ aren't they too cute to be just a shopping bag? Maybe they can use it to carry around novels, or become a beach bag, or an art bag...whatever they can use it for actually, as long as the ultimate goal is to NEVER use plastic bags anymore, these bags will be awesome!

cat person

Paris

farmville

friends

is a guy

red ribbon and recycled paper cards

folded and ribboned.

plain and simple.

Happy Birthday!!!
che, angel, rose ann and elvien